Embodiments of the inventive concept described herein relate to an electronic device for near field communication (NFC) including a mobile device and an accessory.
A radio frequency identification (RFID) system belongs to an automatic recognition field using micro waves and wirelessly recognizes information, which is stored in advance, by using micro waves such as ultra-short waves or long waves. According to an operating principle of the RFID system, a reader may obtain unique information of goods in which a tag is mounted, by receiving and analyzing information stored in the tag.
The RFID system includes a reader, an antenna, and a tag. The antenna is in charge of a relay role between the tag and the reader. The reader may activate the tag by transmitting electric power and a signal of a specific frequency to the tag and may receive a response from the activated tag.
NFC is a field of the RFID and is defined in the ISO/IEC 18092 as the standard of wireless communication in which a frequency of 13.56 MHz is used and data is transmitted within a short distance. The NFC may perform near field wireless communication by using various frequencies, such as 125 KHz, 135 KHz, and 900 MHz, in addition to the frequency of 13.56 MHz.
The NFC makes it possible to transmit and receive data between adjacent devices. For example, the devices may include smartphones, tablet PCs, notebook computers, digital cameras, smart watches, etc. For example, the data may include credit card information, transportation card information, mobile coupon information, ticket information, video information, etc. Since the stability of the NFC using a specific frequency band is high, the NFC may be used for mobile payment or settlement of the transportation card. The NFC may be utilized in an information terminal that accesses a tag, which stores information, to obtain a variety of information.
The NFC may operate in a peer to peer (P2P) mode, a card emulation mode, or a reader mode. The P2P mode refers to a mode in which data is transmitted and received between two devices each supporting the NFC. The card emulation mode refers to a mode in which a device supporting the NFC operates like a tag of an existing RFID card. The reader mode refers to a mode in which a device supporting the NFC reads information from a specific tag.
In the related art, a battery of a mobile device is detachable, and an antenna may be arranged in the battery or in a battery case. Accordingly, the related art mobile device may have the contact terminals that are arranged in the battery, the battery case, or the mobile device. Recently, the mobile devices have been introduced with the batteries integrated therein, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to arrange the antenna of appropriate characteristics in the battery or in a battery case as in the related art mobile device. Further, there is a limited degree of freedom for arranging an antenna, as an additional component, in a mobile device because of the space already occupied by a battery, a camera, a printed circuit board (PCB), a universal subscriber identity module (USIM) chip reader, etc. Due to the above-described issues, the recent mobile devices cannot support many mobile payment and settlement functions.
For example, a smartphone in which an NFC chip is embedded may be used as a purchase means by inputting personal card information to the smartphone. However, due to restrictions on the size and performance of the antenna, the smartphone in which an NFC chip is embedded has a problem in that it cannot often process a payment because it might not recognize an external mobile card or credit card due to the antenna restrictions.